The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-07-11
GEN. PICKETTS WIDOW.
How She Became Reconciled to the
Boys in Blue.

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Boys in Blue.
From the NeW York Worlds Gettysburg Letter
| had a conversation with Mrs. Pickett
upon her return to the Springs Hotel from
the battlefield. She has been profoundly
impressed by the friendship and courtesy
extended to the men of her husbands old
division and with the touching and deli
cate kindness exhibited toward her
self While we sat talking, numbers of
the Philadelphia brigade, in couples and
fours and sometimes in larger numbers, were
frequently calling to pay their respects before
departing from Gettysburg, and to assure
her of their interest and kindly feeling. In
almost every instance these men left their
organization badges with her, and the wife
of one of the Seventy first, who accom-
panied her husband, took from her breast
and pinned upon that of Mrs. Pickett bow
made of blue and gray ribbons. Neither of
the ladies could utter a word during the
touching performance, but the fearful eyes
and warm pressure of the hand as they
separated were more eloquent than any
words that were struggling for utterance
do YOU know, said Mrs. Pickett, as she
pointed to the ribbon souvenir of blue and
gray, that | have been mingling these
colors for twenty years. When the war
was over the women of the South were far
more bitter than our defeated soldiers. We
refused all overtures looking to reconstruc-
ton and declined every offer for recOncilia-
ton. Twenty years ago | was in New York
city. Gen. Ingalls, called upon me. | sup
poS9 | showed by my manner of greeting
Gen. Ingalls, that did not have very warm
regard for him. Gen. Ingalls, noticed this,
and said My dear Mrs. Pickett, you
should not entertain and peTpetuate hostile
feelings toward your husbands army friends
Why, he and l were together at West
Point. We slept under the same blanket
and fought side by side under the same flag
in a foreign land There should be no bit
terneSs in your breast toward me- and his
other army friends That speech of Gen
Ingalls, caused my reconciliation. 1t ex-
planned the feeling that brave soldiers en-
terrain for each other. The following day
| took my husbands watch, the same that
was presented TO him upon his graduation
at West Point, to IA jeweler, had the Union
and Confederate flags placed upon the out
side of the case with their staff crossed and
upon its inside | had engraved the names of
the battles in which he participated under
| the Union flag in Mexico, and those in
which he participated under the Confederate
flag
She said that on the morning of July 3,
| 1858, while Pickett's division lay in the
woods, preparatory to the fatal charge, the
Ueneral wrote her letJer, III Wnlcn ne told
his wife about his orders to charge upon
Cemetery hill. In his letter he referred to
his meeting with Gen. Longstreet in connec-
ton with the order to charge, and the hest
! tating manner of the latter when Pickett
asked LongStreet if he should move on
| Cemetery hill with his division
After he had concluded and signed his
letter. said Mrs. Pickett, "the General
added a postscript in which he said Il know
that Longstreet's nod, if it meant anything,
means death. God bless you, little one ~